


A Gallifreyan Lullaby

by Kantayra



Series: The Masters and Doctors in the Matrix [25]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bedtime Stories, Death Threats, Fluff, Insomnia, Lullabies, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:14:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29696259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kantayra/pseuds/Kantayra
Summary: After the Time War, the Ninth Doctor has difficulty sleeping. The Master knows exactly the remedy for that.
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/The Master | Yana (Doctor Who), The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who)
Series: The Masters and Doctors in the Matrix [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1592659
Kudos: 28





	A Gallifreyan Lullaby

“You are not alone,” the Master hissed in the Doctor’s ear.

The Doctor shivered, spine stiff, shoulders hunched. He curled on his side on the bed with his back to the Master, staring out into the silent darkness of the room.

“You are a fool,” the Master continued to rumble in a low, sweet menace from behind the Doctor, his words sounding jolly and amused in their cruelty. “An absorbed, self-indulgent fool.”

The Doctor shifted uncomfortably, adjusting his head on the pillow an inch.

“Did you honestly believe that you were so important?” the Master mocked him. “So significant? It’s just like you, you know. ‘Oh, I am the best, most influential Time Lord on all of Gallifrey!’” The Master’s voice turned higher and snider when he mimicked the Doctor’s supposed high opinion of himself. “‘Only what I do matters. Only I can end the Time War. And, since I am clearly the only person in all of creation who matters, of _course_ I shall be the only one to survive. Oh, woe is me!’” The Master chuckled low and deep.

The Doctor winced at the not-entirely-inaccurate impression.

“Honestly,” the Master scoffed, “the sheer _arrogance_! How do you live with yourself? Is it the martyrdom? Does that help you sleep at night, with your visions of godhood?”

The Doctor scowled and couldn’t help but grumble out, “You _know_ it doesn’t!”

“Ha!” the Master said triumphantly. “So you admit it!” The Master sidled closer to the Doctor, pressing behind him on the mattress so that his lips just brushed the Doctor’s earlobe when he whispered. “You honestly did believe yourself better than us all, better than _me_.”

A warm, rich laugh tickled the Doctor’s earlobe, and he shuddered in response, swallowing once against the tightness in his chest.

“Oh, my dear, naïve Doctor…” The Master’s tone had turned fond and wistful now. “You really ought to have known better. Surely, after all this time, you didn’t _really_ believe that you had bested me?”

The Doctor squeezed his eyes shut tight, because he had. It hadn’t been arrogance to think he’d done so, had it? Wouldn’t it have been _more_ arrogant to assume that his own personal thorn-in-the-side would somehow be the exception to the Time War, that somehow he’d be allowed to keep this?

“Your thoughts betray you, enemy mine.” The Master clucked his tongue in disgust. “You actually let yourself believe, didn’t you? You thought that I was actually dead this time.”

The Doctor managed a nod into the pillow, eyes still closed.

“You thought that you were _rid_ of me.”

Phrased like that, it did seem a bit twisted. There was a contradiction there: nothing could escape the Time Lock, of course, but on the other hand the Master _always_ came back. Two certain, unwavering truths. Infinities. Wasn’t it inevitable that they cancelled each other out?

“You thought that you had _escaped_ ,” the Master purred poison into the Doctor’s ear.

His voice was soft and soothing and mesmerising, the way that only the Master could be. The Doctor felt the tension in his shoulders relax, despite the warm under-layer of threat to every word the Master murmured into his skin.

“But, oh sweet Doctor,” the Master chided with just a hint sentimental indulgence, “you know that you can _never_ escape.”

The Doctor’s breath hitched.

“You can never be rid of me.”

The Master’s fingers trailed ephemerally down the Doctor’s spine, causing the Doctor to shiver.

“You can never kill me.”

A sigh escaped the Doctor’s lips when the Master’s hand finally settled upon the Doctor’s jutting hipbone possessively.

The Master leaned in then so that his chest was pressed fully against the Doctor’s back. His voice went even more seductive and pacifying, as he whispered deep inevitabilities into the darkness of their bedroom: “I will always be with you, no matter how far you run or how hard you try to lose me. I will track you throughout all of space, time, life, death, afterlife, and any other reality you can possibly conceive. I will always be one step ahead and one step behind, out of the corner of your eye when you aren’t looking, waiting for you, stalking you, ready to snare you in my latest trap. Nothing you do will ever push me away or destroy me or deter me in even the slightest. I am unstoppable, inevitable, and I am always coming for you.” The Master paused in his slow, hypnotic litany to place a gentle, tender kiss on the Doctor’s earlobe. “The truth of the matter is that you will _never_ be alone, whether you like it or not.”

There was no response to this provocation.

The Master raised an eyebrow and leaned over to look at the Doctor’s face. A smile that might have been loving or might have been hating curled the Master’s lips when he saw that the Doctor’s eyes were shut, his breathing relaxed and even, the insomnia from the hardships of his lifetime eased from his brow for the time being.

“Sleep well, Doctor.” The Master brushed a second kiss across the Doctor’s cheek. “Sweet dreams.” He laid his head down upon his own pillow, conscience unburdened as always, and closed his own eyes to sleep. “For now, at least. Because,” he whispered into the still of the dark and the soft sound of the Doctor’s slow, sleeping breathing, “here I come to haunt you even in your dreams. Forever. I promise.”


End file.
